Tests allay toxic fears

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, October 24, 2010

A 1984 story in the Times Union says: "Chances are that if you buy your Thanksgiving turkey at a local supermarket, it has passed through Albany Central's Warehouse." And, as this photo of supervisor Bob Canniff shows, a few milion cranberries were stored there, too. (Times Union archive))

A 1984 story in the Times Union says: "Chances are that if you buy...

Bob Jones of East Greenbush, a warehouseman at the Central Warehouse in Albany, gets ready to load a skid of wheat flour into the container that will be shipped to Kenya in the Dec, 28, 1984, photograph. (Times Union archive)

Bob Jones of East Greenbush, a warehouseman at the Central...

Painters prepare the outside of the Central Warehouse in Albany with a new sign from this May 1984 photograph. (Times Union archive)

Painters prepare the outside of the Central Warehouse in Albany...

Here's a 1980 view of the exterior of the Central Warehouse in Albany. Since it was built in 1927, the Colonie Street building has had many symbols and names on its facade. "Year of the Bible 1983" was one of them. A 1983 Knickerbocker News story says the state Department of Transportation ordered removal of the signs because they violated regulations that all signs posted along highwys be at least 500 feet from each other. A poll conducted by a local radio station found 72 percent of Albany residents would like to see all billboards and similar signs posted in the city removed, the Knick News reported. (Times Union archive)

ALBANY -- Investigators learned on Saturday that workers were inside the hulking Central Warehouse building Friday before it caught fire, draping the city with acrid black smoke, and state health officials reported that "no significant levels of toxic chemicals" were detected in the air of surrounding neighborhoods.

While samples collected Friday night did not find chemical levels higher than those expected in a normal urban area, the Department of Health warned that small particles contained in the smoke could aggravate existing heart and lung conditions.

The results of tests conducted on additional samples collected Saturday in Albany and Rensselaer counties were expected to be available Sunday.

The 400,000-square-foot building smoldered Saturday as state environmental regulators on the scene assured city officials that the potentially dangerous ammonia, which had been used for years in the building's expansive refrigeration system, had, in fact, been emptied out years ago.

"Everything was taken out of there, drained out of the building," Mayor Jerry Jennings said. "There shouldn't be any problems."

Initial fears that the blaze, first reported around 4 p.m. Friday when flames were spotted, would burn for days subsided Saturday after dozens of firefighters rotating throughout the night made unexpected progress, said Fire Chief Robert Forezzi Sr.

The entire battle was being waged from outside the 11-story reinforced concrete building, which sits just north of downtown and within full view of Interstate 787 at 143 Montgomery Street. A hose placed atop a 100-foot ladder truck sprayed the top of the building.

On Friday, Forezzi decided the long-vacant building posed too great a danger to firefighters to enter. Still, with walls and ceiling in the former cold-storage and dry-goods warehouse insulated with cork and polyurethane, Forezzi warned the battle isn't won.

"This could still turn into a two- or three-alarm fire," he said as five stories of the building continued to give off an odor like that of burning rubber.

No flames were visible, but smoke could escape from all parts of the long-dormant refrigerator, once dubbed a giant ice cube.

Jennings said officials planned to move cautiously before declaring the blaze out.

"We're not sure what else is in there that might catch," he said.

With no one allowed inside, the investigation into the cause began with officials talking the members of the building's ownership group, CW Montgomery LLC, which bought the 83-year-old warehouse in 2007 with designs on redeveloping it into a residential complex.

Asked about people who had reportedly been seen entering and leaving the building with copper piping and other recyclable materials in recent days, Forezzi said that fire officials had interviewed the owners and determined that workers were in the structure as recently as Friday. Whether those workers may have had anything to do with the fire is part of the probe.

"The owners had workers in there doing some work," Forezzi said, declining to elaborate citing the ongoing investigation.

The building's future remains decidedly in doubt.

Members of the ownership group, which put the property up for sale earlier this year with a $4.9 million asking price, could not be reached for comment.

Jennings spoke optimistically that the blighted landmark, because of its solid construction, could still be redeveloped. But the mayor acknowledged officials really won't know until they can get inside and have engineers assess the extent of the damage.

"Basically, they're going to have to step up, the ownership, and make some decisions, and I'm going to expect them to be a partner," he said. "We can't just have it sit there."

If the building cannot be saved, the demolition costs -- which could easily exceed $1 million -- will likely prove a large hurdle to progress, similar to how it has inhibited efforts to redevelop the old First Prize meat packing plant in West Albany.

Jennings said he heard an estimate several years ago that it could cost in the neighborhood of $1.5 million to raze the Central Warehouse.

For those familiar with the industrial neighborhood, the sight of the towering, burnt building has evoked feelings ranging from admiration to apathy.

In the six months he has worked there, he said, he frequently saw vagrants stream in and out, looking for a place to sleep and scavenging scraps of lumber and copper to sell.

"I thought (the current owners) were dumb to buy it in the first place, to be honest," said Fred Shapiro, who has owned Silver Fox Salvage, on Learned Street, for four years. "To try to renovate a place that complex is a phenomenal amount of money. It's much cheaper to start from scratch. I can't imagine that place would have ever been profitable. Who's going to buy a place with no windows?"'

He proposed the city "turn it into a huge piece of art" by inviting local artists to paint murals on its peeling walls.

Those walls were the focus of citywide contention in the early 1980s, when the state Department of Transportation charged that the building's three painted signs -- including one that declared 1983 the "Year of the Bible" -- exceeded state size and distance regulations.

The warehouse was built primarily to store frozen and refrigerated foods for customers ranging from large supermarket chains to the U.S. government. At any one time, warehouse officials were reported as saying, enough food was stored in the warehouse to feed the population of Albany for three months.

In 2000, the state Department of Environmental Conservation recommended the ammonia be purged from the system, and Attorney General Dennis Vacco interceded in a bankruptcy proceeding to keep power running to the building in order to prevent the release of ammonia gas over downtown.

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com